


More Ficlets

by rea_p



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Academia, Be Careful What You Wish For, Ficlet, Gen, conference funding, great smoky mountains, kudzu - Freeform, kudzu honey, side characters are my thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-03-03 16:18:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13344888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rea_p/pseuds/rea_p
Summary: More random bits of fic





	1. Steam Irons are Very Heavy

“Holly! You survived!” Hawkeye gave the woman a one-armed hug, explaining to the others “She worked in the SHIELD tailor shop. Has a way with pockets.”

Holly grinned and returned the hug. “Yeah - it helps that the shop was in the annex in Maryland, and we only had one Hydra agent anyway. Carroll hit him in the head with an iron when he tried to pull a gun on us.”

“Only one?”

“Well, I mean, technically there were two, but the other one was on maternity leave, so we didn’t find out until later.”

“Maternity leave...?”

“Yeah,” Holly shrugged, “I mean, I’m kinda pissed. If I’d known she was Hydra I wouldn’t have chipped in for the really awesome running stroller.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: steam costuming/tailoring irons are kinda terrifying. Also, I swear you used to be able to find job listings for work with the government as a tailor. Adding hidden pockets and all that.


	2. Conference Fairies and other Academical Creatures

An intense, albeit hushed, conversation was taking place in the corner of the campus coffee shop.

Mary, who had worked in museums before coming back for a second degree, was explaining that curatorial employees attracted the Conference Funding Fairy with an ad for discounts on museum studies books, early grey tea, and crumbs from a croissant, while education employees used coffee in place of tea and sometimes subbed in muffins.

Zara was telling her that, now that she was a grad student, summoning the Spirit of Conference Funding required coffee beans, abstracts, an expense form from the University Travel Office, and that a sweet pastry was supposedly optional but actually required for success. 

TJ eyed the two humanists. “In the sciences, we summon the Conference Demon with blood. And stale coffee.” TJ shrugged at the identical expressions of wtf on Mary and Zara’s faces. “What. We’ve got sinks.”


	3. Down the Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't go without a gift

The road was gravel and dust, with a gully on one side deep enough to catch a truck’s tire. Steve wasn’t sure that the car they were in - described as an SUV but likely just for the 4 wheel drive - would survive a close encounter with the gully.

They were somewhere in the Great Smoky Mountains. It might have been Tennessee, or Virginia, or North Carolina, or even Kentucky. Even StarkTech didn’t work very well in this valley. Thor had a general sense of which direction, and they’d stopped and asked for where to turn off at a farm stand next to an run-down general store with a tin Coca-Cola sign hanging by the front door.

The locals had grinned knowingly when they asked, shaking their heads but telling which turn off would lead to That Place. Thor had earned their approval by not only purchasing a bushel of peaches (delicious and so juicy that every one of them had stains on their shirts) but asking what an appropriate gift would be.

“Can’t go see Her without a gift,” agreed the elderly man in faded plaid shirt. Thor nodded, and the two men assessed the virtues of various goods before settling on a second bushel of peaches and a jar of honey.

“Kudzu honey,” said the woman running the farm stand, who had listened to all of this appraisingly, her face as unreadable as Natasha’s. “Nothing quite like it.”

They had piled back into the car and onto the country road, heading for the turn off for a narrow paved road that led to the gravel one they were now traveling down.

It was hard for Steve, a child of the city, to imagine living somewhere this remote. The bushes crowding the side of the road (rhodendron) and the tall trees blocked any sign of human habitation, and they’d been going so long that even Thor had started to wonder if they’d taken a wrong turn when the view suddenly opened up.

Without knowing it, the road had taken them about halfway up the side of the mountain, and the narrow meadow before them offered a glimpse of hills in the distance, over the tops of fruit trees that mixed with the edge of the wood. A small house and series of outbuilding marked the end of the road.

“So,” said Clint. “This is where a witch lives?”

“Indeed,” Thor replied, “It is as I was told it would be - a fine homestead with an orchard!”

With the car parked a respectful distance from the house, they got out and Steven wondered how, exactly, you approach a witch. What would she look like? Something like Snow White? Or something out of one of his mother’s stories?

And then the door on the screen porch swung open and out stepped … a fairly ordinary looking woman. She had on jeans and a long-sleeved button down shirt, her hair just starting to go gray pulled up into a ponytail. In one hand she held a spade, in the other a small bucket. A small tabby cat flowed out from under the porch to butt its head against her ankle and demand food.

“Can I help you?” she asked, in a voice that shared most of the accent of the folk back at the crossroads.

“Honored Sorceress, we have brought you gifts-” Thor began, and started explaining why they were there, four Avengers in the backcountry, seeking the help of a mountain witch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just have this mental image of Thor and a few other Avengers in the middle of the mountains trying to get the help of a sorceress/witch/magic woman who'd rather tend her garden and deal with local issues. 
> 
> For the record, my idea of the woman they're dealing with is heavily inspired by Sharyn McCrumb's Nora Bonesteel.


End file.
